Ian Holloway: Matt Phillips is the next Gareth Bale

Blackpool manager Ian Holloway snapped up 19-year-old winger Matt Phillips last summer from Wycombe for just £325,000 after watching a DVD of him in action.

Now Holloway believes the teenage can become a world-beater, like Tottenham star Gareth Bale.

“He’s got frightening potential,” said Holloway. “To say I feel we have won the lottery in him is not an understatement.

“I was chucked a DVD of him in the summer. We had to do it that way because we were wrung out.

“Our scout took one trip to Hungary and the bloke had to wait four months for his expenses and so I couldn’t send him again.

“I saw a compilation of Matty – a header, a left-foot strike and a right-foot strike – and said, ‘No, the boy can’t be any good at Wycombe’.

“When I got home, I sat and watched it again. I stopped it, rewound and looked at it again.

“Maybe Matty might have a future at being like Gareth Bale on the opposite side.

“I don’t anticipate him being with us long because I have seen in him things that top clubs in the world have, their players have got those sort of talents.”

Holloway, whose side visit bottom club Wolves today, added: “I haven’t decided what his best position is yet, but I have said I think about right-back.

“From that area he is hitting some of the best crossfi eld passes, even better than Charlie Adam. You look at what Ashley Cole has achieved as a left-back, who was a winger when he first went to Arsenal.

“If you think about all the best teams in the world, what are their full-backs like? Have a look at Barcelona with Dani Alves.

“What Matt has to do is learn to defend because Alves can defend. But I think there is nothing to say he can’t be a world star, providing he keeps going and keeps working.”

Pool ended a six-match winless streak by upsetting Spurs in midweek and Holloway fumed at the suggestion they would falter like Hull, who were relegated after a shocking run of just one victory in their last 13 games.

He added: “We aren’t Hull. Why are we going to go the way they did?

“We are not trying to defend our way to another 10 points. We don’t fear anybody.”